I wish I could post this anonymously, I feel so embarrassed.
Was pottering about outside last night about 8 o'clock and started up the Prelude (which was standing in the open) for some reason, then walked away when I thought of something else.
Went outside this morning at 9am and heard the engine fan. It was still ticking over to itself after 13 hours!
It was very hot (not on the gauge though) but seems ok. It was only serviced a week ago and oil and water levels are normal. Took a long time to cool right down but everything seems to be working normally. It seems to have used about three gallons of gas.
Might I have damaged it? It's a 2.2 vtec that had done 53k up to last night and has been serviced by time rather than mileage and is on its second cam and balancer belts and platinum plugs.
Oh dear, what a pr*t...
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Mike,
I wouldn't worry - if the oil and water's OK, and normal reading on the temp. gauge, you should be fine. I did a ten hour trip this summer, a few hours of which were stationary in traffic jams with the fan whirring away, no problems. Hondas seem to have efficient cooling systems - we had a Civic that didn't deviate a millimeter from the optimum temp. reading in the six years we owned it.
regards,
P.
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"It seems to have used about three gallons of gas."
I'd say it'll have done itself about 120 miles worth of damage then!
No doubt the purists and doom-mongers will tell you you should now change the oil four times in quick succession, fit a new cam belt and then get rid of it instantly, but in the real world, you've done it no damage whatsoever. Congratulate yourself on having bought a Honda - I'd be amazed if Mr Honda hadn't planned for that eventuality, they plan for everything else. Would have been a different story if the oil or water had been low or absent!
Just forget it - the car already has!
Neil
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Just be glad that some little chav didn't spot the car with engine running before you did - that one might've been difficult to explain to Plod.
Carry on using car as normal - no damage done.
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An ex boss of mine pulled up in a cinema car park, saw someone he knew, had a chat, went to see a film, had a meal afterwards, went back to his car four hours later and it was merrily idling away, though 13 hours .................
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Honda engines are also used in portable generators. They are left at the side of burger vans and the like running for hours on end, with no apparant damage occuring to them.
Wouldn't worry about it myself.
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I don't think you can compare a generator engine, designed to run at constant speed/load, to that of a car engine.
I would just make sure you get the cambelt changed on time, as it will be running under more stress at idle given the variable engine speed you get, but then this can be said of town driving I guess!
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Mike Farrow
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I would have thought that the only problem you could incur was any block distortion through overheating - but as you say the cooling fan did its job and if you do not have any problems now all will be ok IMO.
It might be worth checking the battery with any additional load driving the electric fan and only re-charging at idle.
Nip down the road for an italian tune up and if all looks ok with levels etc then it will be fine.
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I know someone who moored his boat and forgot to stop the twin cylinder diesel when he left it-yes-still running four weeks later!!
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Thanks everyone - all seems well, touch wood. Had the plugs out, checked everything I could think of and it appears to be running in its usual sewing machine manner. I'll follow the Italian tune-up advice - I usually do this anyway if I haven't managed to trigger the vtec for a while.
Still got a red face, though...
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Mike,
You should have gone down the "I have a friend" lline.
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Yeah - good advice PU.
Reminded me of when my mate had a Fiesta and locked his keys in it with the engine running, heaters on and no spare.
Ohhh we give him hell about that.
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You know, if even the pessimists can only muster 'make sure you change the cambelt on time' and 'the block could have warped (that I'd pay to see!) but didn't' ; I reckon you've probably improved it!
;-)
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>>I know someone who moored his boat and forgot to stop the twin cylinder diesel when he left it-yes-still running four weeks later!!
Many fishing boats never turn their engines off. The big diesels run so slowly that the weight of the flywheel keeps them just turning over. They also find it looks after the engine in the marine environment. I heard of one fisherman regularly went on holiday for a 2 week break and always left he engine running.
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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"They are left at the side of burger vans and the like running for hours on end, with no apparant damage occuring to them."
The 1978 Bedford (petrol) ice cream van at Alfred's Tower near the Stourhead Estate (National Trust) in Wiltshire has been idling away all day for as many years as I can remember and that is still going strong.
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After belting down the autobahn in the V70 for long periods at 130+ MPH and frequently 140 or rather a lot more, on a day in the high thirties celsius, we joined a solid traffic jam near Munich. Umpteen hundreds of vehicles belting out heat on to hot blacktop on a baking hot day, and not a breath of wind. After a good period of crawling - with the a/c pumping out even more heat in to the engine bay - we pulled in to a services area to spend pennies. The heat that came out from underneath the car when we opened our doors was so fearsome I'm surprised it didn't scald. Unreal! Of course, 14 months later the car still runs perfectly.
You have nowt to worry about, Mike, and what either of us did would have been nowhere near to the preproduction testing each model went through.
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>>You know, if even the pessimists can only muster 'make sure you change the cambelt on time' and 'the block could have warped (that I'd pay to see!) but didn't' ; I reckon you've probably improved it!<<
Neil, I was not trying to be pessimistic - quite the opposite in fact - the only thing I could actually think of going wrong was thought of as somone suggested the engine got very hot.
My apologies for not being a thermodynamics expert.
Why do people on this forum always assume that when someone trys to help or suggest they are being pessimistic.
Can anyone recomend a forum where you can actually DISCUSS motoring issues ?
Mike - I'm pleased all is well.
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Mike,
Just to take some of the heat off.......... sorry for the pun
Couple of years back, left my old bike (Yam FZ750) deliberately running fast on the choke to charge up the flat battery....... only it's designed to be ridden with air flowing past it isn't it...... i melted the fairing where it gets tight to the exhaust down pipes, it looked awful.
so others can easily be pr*ts as well......... it's remarkably easy in fact.
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Won't have been good for it, but it'll be OK.
Personally I'd change the oil earlier, then forget all about it!
Lucky it's not a turbo. I hear that even turbo diesels can suffer turbo problems if left idling too long.
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Left my 130,000 mile R Type Bentley idling for four hours once, quite easy to do as it was quiet and you could lock the doors and walk away leaving it running... and oil got thin when hot in those days, if you used the recommended 30 grade. The oil pressure light was twinkling when I got back to it, but then it was supposed to do that perhaps even when the car was new if you'd just been blasting along.
Thing that really did for it was going flat out all the way up the M1 to Leeds because I was late for a trivial market research group interview. It was never the same again after that. But it still did its advertised 105 mph until that time.
Now I think I ought to have been shot for this act of murder.
But you know, it was 'only a car'.
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from Lud's posts I'm beginning to wonder if he has "Double 0" number. if you know what I mean.
JH
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Yes
I wonder how he takes his martini........
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Yes I wonder how he takes his martini........ ------------------------------
>
Never touch the stuff. Ogogoro is more my sort of thing.
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Left my 130,000 mile R Type Bentley idling for four hours once,
As one does ;)
Lud, it's only a few days since you were reminding us (in a discussion on congestion charging) that not all residents of Kensington&Chelsea are well-heeled.
I reckoned you were probably right, but I hadn't realised that things were so tough there that folks had to make do with cars from the 1950s. Maybe we should organise a whip-around to buy you an Escort XR3 wot has been discarded by them rich folks in Essex ;)
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That was many years ago NW before I was 'freelance'. And actually I couldn't afford the thing even then (it cost the same as a new Mini to buy in 67 or 8, £525).
My present car is a Ford Escort that cost £250 a year or so back. It had been discarded by some rich folks in Sussex. It's quicker than the Bentley and about as quiet, but you don't get that inimitable feeling of driving about in a small cathedral. Still, you don't get the 8mpg round town either....
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Thanks Lud - I keep wondering whether an R type Continental for the price of a high-end Audi is just mad, although I've fancied one for 15 years.
On a serious note, I've just given the Prelude 100 brisk miles and everything feels and looks ok. Perhaps I'll just wipe out this weekend....
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Beautiful car mh, with higher gearing than the standard saloon and quite a bit faster (as well as more economical at slow steady speeds). But it wouldn't be cheap to run even if kept as a pet. Rolls-Royces are for rich people.
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The retired headmistress of my school and her husband were both killed one evening after her husband put the car in the garage and forgot to switch the engine off. Carbon monoxide poisoning.
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Friend of mine reminded me about this today. Luckily we don't have an integral or undeground garage as so many French houses seem to. Can a car with a cat still kill you? I seem to remember a long debate about this years ago when I was doing inquests but I can't remember the answer.
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I would have thought so - if you were sitting in the garage anyway. Whether it would be from the carbon monoxide or the lack of oxygen though I don't know.
I'll go and try it out now - if I don't make a post by 9am, yes - it kills you.
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40 mins to go. The BR holds its breath ..........
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IanS
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............ it is with great sadness (sob) that we seem to have lost (cont p94)
_______
IanS
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Oh no...and all I wanted to do was tell everyone what a pr*t I felt!
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It's ok! I'm alive!
Sorry - I forgot about this thread! Don't worry, I'm alive and well. I'm hooked on Columbo so when I got up I put an episode of that on and just had a brief glance at the BR.
Motoring connection - Columbo drives a Peugeot.
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Just as well the £250 wreath I ordered from Interflora is COD.
Hope yr plastic's in good order Adam. That'll teach you to pretend to be dead.
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Hooked on Columbo? I should go and sit in the garage with the Focus engine running...
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Yeah sorry about that Lud - damned insensitive of me.
Mike - I should point out I'm on about the Lieutenant and not the city.
Columbo is quite possible the best T.V. program ever made. Ever.
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